Dr. Dale Rollins Retires

From our September/October 2025 Issue

Over the course of his long, award-studded career, Dr. Dale Rolllins has worn a lot of hats. But whether it’s his professor hat or his executive director hat or his research scientist hat, they’ve all had one thing in common: They’re embroidered with the image of a bobwhite quail. As the man known in Texas as “Dr. Quail” is fond of saying, “It’s not possible to think more about quail than I do. It’s 24/7/365 for me.”

A longtime professor and wildlife specialist (now emeritus) for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Rollins founded the Bobwhite Brigade, an intensive “quail camp” for teens, in 1993. The program proved so successful that it grew to involve other wildlife species in Texas and has been adopted by several other states. Its counterpart for adults, QuailMasters, was established in 2005. In 2018 Rollins was enshrined in the Texas Conservation Hall of Fame, which noted that he “has spent his entire career devoted to quail conservation.”

Beyond the borders of the Lone Star State, Rollins is undoubtedly best known as the public face of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation (RPQRF), the bobwhite quail “think tank” and 4,700-acre demonstration ranch/living laboratory established in 2007 (see “The Promise of QuailGuard,” Sept/Oct’24). Rollins helped found the organization and served as its Executive Director until 2021, when he assumed the role of Director of Outreach. But nothing lasts forever, and this past April he announced that while he’ll continue to produce his “Dr. Dale on Quail” podcast and serve as a member of the RPQRF board, he’s relinquishing his other duties.

In the words of Joe Crafton, the Dallas sportsman who worked closely with Rollins on a multitude of projects during his time as RPQRF President, “Dale has been a tireless advocate for quail and for the heritage of quail hunting. At heart he’s an educator, and in that capacity he’s influenced countless people, both wildlife professionals and amateur enthusiasts. I think of him as a sage of the prairie in the mode of Will Rogers—someone who has that unique ability to communicate with the scientist and the non-scientist alike.”

Let there be no mistake, though: Dr. Dale Rollins is a dead-serious quail hunter who knows his way around a scattergun. He makes a mean pot of pinto beans too.